Who's To Say
by thedreamygirl
Summary: Sort of AU season 1 veers off after 1x06. The night of their junior prom Nathan and Haley discover that having a private prom is much more…fun. [An alternate way they could have gotten together.]
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Who's To Say  
**Author:** Hana (thedreamygirl)  
**Rating:** Teen  
**Spoilers:** Up to 1x06 "Every Night is Another Story"  
**Summary:** Sort of AU. The night of their junior prom Nathan and Haley discover that having a private prom is much more…fun.

**Author's Note:** Season 1 veers off after 1x06; BLP have their triangle drama ending with Brooke and Lucas getting together but NH remain in their "just tutoring" stage. And now it's some months later, and the night of their junior prom.

**Author's Note 2:** I got the idea for this story the first time I heard Vanessa Carlton's "Who's To Say" (hence the title) but I was a little slow in getting it written until the prom challenge at DareYouToWrite was posted and I realised that it fit! This is the first of three parts. Thanks to Miranda for the beta. This is for the lovely Brittbee as thanks for her confidence boost and to hopefully cheer her up ;)

**Part One**

"Boo."

Haley jumped at the sound of the voice behind her, the element of surprise ruling over the fact that she knew who it belonged to. They may have only said one word, but she would recognize that voice anywhere, which was something that both excited and irritated her at the same time.

Haley didn't want to remember all this stuff about Nathan. Like the way his hand almost touched her back every time he draped his arm on the back of her chair when she was showing him what he had done wrong on his tests. Or how, when he found a problem particularly difficult to answer he started to frown, causing two wrinkle lines to form across his forehead. It was bad enough that she wanted to reach forward and smooth out those lines whenever they appeared, she didn't need to be remembering all that other stuff as well; it was just as useless as her ability to quote her favorite lines from her favorite films. Yet, somehow, she still managed to retain enough information about him that would get her an A+ on the Nathan Scott test.

Now, that was a test she'd like to study for…

Haley shook her head, trying to control her thoughts from going somewhere that they had no place going to. However, she ceased the shaking as soon as she remembered Nathan was still standing there and was probably wondering what had gotten into her.

Haley turned around to face him, but any hope of a witty comeback died the moment she laid eyes on him. In the comfort of her own bedroom she had many a time admitted to herself that Nathan Scott was handsome; hot, even. But that was before she had seen him dressed up in a suit. It was classic black with a white shirt and a thin black tie. Haley liked that he wore a normal tie and not a bow tie. There was just something she liked about a man wearing a tie. She had this fantasy where –

_No_, she thought to herself and shut her eyes quickly. She was not going to go there, especially not when the person who had recently begun starring in said fantasies was standing right in front of her.

"Er, hi," she said finally after opening her eyes. It seemed somewhat inadequate after being silent for so long, but it would have to do.

"Hi. I didn't scare you, did I?" Those two wrinkle lines appeared on his forehead as he said it so Haley quickly shook her head and was rewarded when they disappeared instantly. "So, what are you doing here?" he wondered.

Haley looked around at where she was standing at the furthermost corner in the room. She was so far back that if a wall had been in place as a partition instead of the long dark curtain then Nathan wouldn't have had any room to creep up behind her. "Well, you know me. I'm not really much of a joiner."

Nathan chuckled. "Actually, I was referring to you being at prom. You told me during tutoring one time that you weren't coming."

"Oh, oh right!" Haley flushed slightly as she realized his meaning. "No, I wasn't planning on coming, but thanks to Brooke I somehow ended up here."

"Thanks to Brooke?"

"Yeah, she told Lucas that I just couldn't skip prom. She said it would be a travesty – I wouldn't have thought that Brooke had even heard the word travesty before. But, anyway," Haley continued, "she made a big fuss so you know Lucas. He told me to just come with them so…here I am. I thought you said you weren't going to come either," she commented, remembering his reply that particular session.

"No, I wasn't, but…Tim really wanted to come and all the girls he asked said no so he asked me to come with him so he wouldn't look like a loser showing up without a date."

"I don't have a date," Haley responded immediately, but then wished she had just kept her mouth shut.

"But you could never look like a loser. This is Tim we're talking about, Haley."

Haley smiled shyly and tried to compose herself by looking away from Nathan to glance down at her feet which were currently encased in the blue heels Peyton had lent her, although they still didn't do much to close the height gap between her and Nathan. "Um, that was nice of you…to come here for Tim even though you didn't want to," she clarified. "It's really sweet of you to do that for a friend."

Nathan, however, just shrugged it off. "There was also a deal involved regarding Play Station games. So…you came with Lucas and Brooke, then?"

"Yep, and Peyton and Jake."

"Oh?" Nathan said conversationally, but from her reaction to it Nathan could tell Haley had misunderstood.

"Just as a group," she replied. "Like, the five of us arrived together, but Peyton and Jake didn't come as each others dates or anything…in case you were wondering," she added softly.

He wasn't, but somehow Nathan doubted that he would be able to convince Haley of that. Ever since those first few weeks after their break-up, when he had mentioned Peyton a lot during tutoring, Haley seemed to have gotten it stuck in her head that he wanted to get back together with Peyton. And yeah, at the time that had been kind of true, except that he had wanted to get back together mostly because he thought she had dumped him for Lucas. Now, however, he definitely didn't want to get back together with Peyton – and not just because Lucas was already dating Brooke – but he couldn't really tell that to Haley without explaining the whole thing and Nathan had more than just a feeling that that wouldn't go over too well.

So they had sort of become stuck in this weird just-friends mode. Nathan had never had a girl as just a friend before, but it was turning out to be kind of nice – if only he didn't spend a lot of his time wishing they weren't just friends.

Because the truth was that Haley James was turning him into a wuss.

Ever since he was fourteen Nathan had gone to almost all of the school dances; the girls looked hot and there was free food so as long as he avoided the dancing part what wasn't to enjoy? However, he'd always said he would never go to prom. Because at prom you had to wear a suit and tie. It was like a rule. At the dances he could get away with just a jacket and no tie, but at prom it was no tie, no entry. That hadn't been a problem for Nathan. Now they were juniors they didn't need school dances as an excuse to check out the girls so he'd said from the beginning of the year that he wasn't going. But that was before he'd met Haley James.

Not only had she made him rethink going to prom, he had actually been about to ask her to go with him – it had been the best way he could think of them going on a sort of date – except after he had subtly introduced the subject of prom into their conversation she had said how stupid the whole thing was and that she never wanted to go. Granted, he agreed with her on the stupid comment, but that hadn't made the sucker-punch to his stomach hurt any less.

Still even that hadn't been as bad as how he'd felt when he'd overheard Peyton and Brooke talking the previous day as everyone was on their way out from the gym after basketball and cheerleading practice. Hearing them, mostly Brooke, discussing how "cute" they were going to make Haley look for prom – as if she needed their help – had made him think two things. One, she had lied to him and said she didn't want to go because he hadn't been as subtle about bringing the whole thing up as he had thought. Or two, someone else had asked her and she had said yes. Neither of those options had been particularly pleasant to deal with and since they hadn't planned to have a tutoring session between that practice and the prom he'd been left with two options. Either he could make up a fake assignment he was having problems with and call her for help, cleverly introducing the topic of prom once more or just go to prom and find her. Since both served to clarify how much of a pansy she'd turned him into he decided in the end to just go to the damn thing and see if he could find her there.

The thing about Tim not wanting to go stag hadn't been a lie, Tim had asked him a while ago to come for precisely that reason. Only Nathan had said no and continued to do so every time that he asked until he had heard Haley was going to prom. He hadn't gotten his suit out of the back of his closet and worn a stupid tie that was already choking him because he had wanted to do something sweet for a friend. He was wearing a tie for her. Not that he could tell Haley that.

Resisting the urge to pull on the tie and loosen it Nathan shook his head in reply to Haley's comment. "Not really. Have you been enjoying prom so far?"

She bit the side of her lip in that cute way she always did while she contemplated for a moment. "Um, it's been kind of uneventful, but okay. Have you?"

Shrugging, Nathan answered, "It's kind of boring, really. It's gotten better lately though," he added with a smirk and he grinned when she blushed. He loved it when she blushed; she totally liked him!

The smaller and less used, but more sensible part of his brain decided to butt in just then, reminding Nathan not to get ahead of himself. Haley blushing didn't necessarily mean that she liked him. After all, it wasn't as if he would know if she blushed a lot when he wasn't around. Nathan started to think of her blushing around Lucas and suddenly became irrationally jealous. He may have called a halt on his on and off court rivalry with Lucas because of Haley, but that didn't mean they were going to be friends anytime soon, and even though he knew it was selfish of him he often became jealous when Haley would mention having plans with Lucas. It was just annoying that Lucas got to see her whenever he wanted to while Nathan could only do so when schoolwork was involved. No matter how many times he steered the conversation to other topics Haley would always bring it back to his studies.

However, studying was the last thing on Haley's mind at that moment in time. It was always pretty hard to think of anything else when Nathan was smirking at her. At least when they were in the Tutoring Center the environment would remind her of what they were supposed to be doing and she'd make him concentrate on his work so that she in turn could as well, but here everyone was having a good time and on top of the smirk Nathan was all dressed up and it made Haley feel all excited - even if he did smirk at everyone.

Realizing she had been silent for a while, she opened her mouth to say something about the décor when Nathan suddenly asked, "Do you want to get out of here?"

Haley had to blink for a second as she took in what he had said. "Wha…" she trailed off not knowing how to respond. "Where would we go?"

Nathan shrugged his shoulders once more. "Anywhere."

"Anywhere?" Haley repeated incredulously.

"Yeah. Where do you want to go?"

"I-I don't know…I didn't think I'd be going anywhere else tonight…"

"Well, now you can."

"I…But…But what about Tim?" she asked finally. "I thought you came to keep him company-"

"Tim's with some of the guys from the team, he'll be fine. Do you want to go or not?"

Haley stared at him for a few moments before glancing back over her shoulder. "Maybe I should tell Lucas…"

"Why? Does he tell you everywhere he's going?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Then you don't need to tell him. Look, you said prom hasn't been all that interesting right?"

"Yeah, b-"

"So, let's get out of here!" Nathan stressed, with the kind of excitement in his voice and his eyes that she used to wish he'd tackle his homework with. Not knowing how to reply she stared at him wordlessly for a few moments before Nathan piped up, "Haley, look. We never do anything just fun together. And you strike me as someone who needs to let loose a little bit –"

"Just because I don't go to parties every night and get drunk-"

"That's not what I mean."

"Then what do you mean, Nathan?"

"I mean…You're like…you're the routine girl. You have your routine and you stick to it and you never do anything differently-"

"But I like my routine," Haley cut in, pouting slightly.

"And that's fine. But there's nothing wrong with doing something different sometimes, just for a change. It'll be fun, I promise."

Haley remained quiet, her arms folded against her dark blue dress and Nathan could almost see the wheels turning in her head. A bit more nervous than he'd like to admit he waited without prodding her, but he knew she'd made up her mind when she asked, "You're not planning anything illegal are you?"

"Not if you don't want to."

Haley took a deep breath and clutched her purse tighter in her hands. "Okay. Let's go."


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** Who's To Say  
**Author:** Hana (thedreamygirl)  
**Rating:** Teen  
**Word Count:** 2,550 (this chapter)  
**Characters:** Primarily Nathan/Haley, but some of the other characters make an appearance.  
**Spoilers:** Up to 1x06 "Every Night is Another Story"  
**Summary:** Sort of AU. The night of their junior prom Nathan and Haley discover that having a private prom is much more…fun.

**Author's Note:** Season 1 veers off after 1x06; BLP have their triangle drama ending with Brooke and Lucas getting together but NH remain in their "just tutoring" stage. And now it's some months later, and the night of their junior prom.

**Part Two**

"So, um, where exactly are we going?"

Nathan crooked his head to the side and grinned before replying, "Where do you want to go?"

"You were the one who wanted to go somewhere!" Haley exclaimed, feeling slightly out of breath; partly because she was doing something new and exciting, but a lot because she had to take two steps to keep up with every one of Nathan's, which was made more difficult since she was in heels.

"Well, yeah, but it was a spur of the moment thing. I hadn't decided on anywhere in particular," he admitted just as they stepped out of the building where prom was being held. Most of the time it was the seniors who got to have their prom at a place of their choice while the juniors settled for the school gym, but this year thanks to an extra large donation of funds – most of which Nathan suspected had come out of Daddy Davis's pocket – the junior class got to choose where they held their prom as well. It wasn't any place fancy, it seemed to be some sort of empty lot, but it was two stories and a good deal bigger than their gym and with all of their decorating the prom committee had actually made it look kind of nice. However, as Nathan stepped outside with Haley he felt a sense of relief. Haley always seemed more relaxed when they were alone and now they were practically the only two people on the street.

"So we have no plan at all?" Haley wondered.

"We don't need a plan. We'll make it up as we go along."

Haley tried to raise one eyebrow at him, but could only raise both at the same time. "Maybe we should go back. I mean, you might be named Prom King or something."

"I really don't care about being Prom King. What about you? You might be named Prom Queen."

Haley actually snorted, but immediately clasped her hand to her nose, embarrassed she had done so in front of Nathan. "In what universe?"

"What makes you think it's so unlikely?"

"Because!" Haley exclaimed. "I'm not a cheerleader, I'm not popular –"

"You're friends with the popular kids. That makes you popular by association."

"Brooke and I are not really friends-"

"But you and Peyton are. You and Lucas are, and ever since he joined the basketball team and started dating the captain of the cheerleading squad, he's become pretty popular. And, you know, we're friends…" he finished somewhat more lacklustre than he had begun. They had never really talked about being friends, not that Nathan figured that was something most people did, but with the whole weird situation regarding Lucas, Nathan sometimes wondered if they were really as good friends as he thought they were. After all, she didn't need him to be her friend.

To Nathan's surprise however, that wasn't what Haley picked up on. "So you think you're popular, eh?" Haley nudged him with her elbow.

Nathan chuckled, relaxing once more. "Oh, yeah. I'm sure all the girls inside are simply mourning the loss of my good-looking presence."

Haley couldn't help, but laugh. A few moments later as they continued walking down the street she asked, "So can we please decide where we're going now?"

"Haley!" Nathan admonished. "Part of the fun is that we don't know where we're going!"

"Well, okay, but we can't just be walking aimlessly down the road."

Nathan smirked at her. "Why not?"

"Because!" When Nathan gave her a look that said that wasn't an acceptable answer, she added, "We'll get lost or something."

"Haley, Tree Hill is a pretty small place. It's kind of hard to get lost. Plus, we both have our cell phones so we can always call for help if we need to-"

"Call for help!" Haley practically yelled. "What exactly do you think is going to happen, Nathan Scott?"

He knew it wasn't good when she called him by his full name. Nathan stopped walking and placed his hands on her shoulders to get her to stop as well. "Haley, will you calm down?"

"I'll calm down when you tell me where we're going!"

"I don't know where we're going! I've already told you that. Look, I just thought it would be fun if we could hang out for a bit."

"Well, couldn't we have done that at prom?"

"Yeah, I guess. I just thought it would be nice if we could do something by ourselves…just-" Nathan was about to say "just the two of us", but caught himself in time. He was getting way too close to date territory. When Haley didn't reply he forced himself to say, "If you want to go back, we can."

Looking into his blue eyes Haley saw that he was telling the truth. If she wanted to go back, he'd probably walk her there himself. But if she was being honest with herself, there was a part of her that wanted to be out here with Nathan with no idea what they were doing and for once that part wasn't the minority in her head.

Taking a deep breath, Haley forced herself to calm down before Nathan came to his senses and realized he'd much rather be back at prom with all the cheerleaders. "No, I want to stay."

"It's okay if you want to go ba-"

"No. I want to stay," she repeated, with more conviction in her voice. "But we have to decide on where we're going," Haley told Nathan.

"Okay," he conceded with a grin. "So how are we going to choose?"

"Um…" Haley thought for a moment before instructing, "Oh! Close your eyes."

"Er…okay. You're not going to like run away while I'm standing here with my eyes closed are you?"

"No, of course not. Now, close them, quickly," she said excitedly so Nathan complied.

"Alright, they're closed."

"Okay, now clear your mind."

"This sounds like you're trying to do some sort of magic trick."

"Nathan!"

"Okay, okay, I'm clearing."

"No, you're not, you're frowning."

"Well, that's because I'm concentrating."

"But you're not supposed to be concentrating!" she stressed. "You're supposed to relax and clear your mind of all thoughts. You know, like those yoga people talk about. Inhale…Exhale." Nathan let out a short breath that sounded more frustrated than relaxed but Haley supposed it would have to do. "Okay, now tell me the first thing that comes into your mind."

"I'm hungry."

"What?"

"I feel hungry. That was the first thing that came into my mind." Opening his eyes, Nathan continued, "You know, now that I think about it, I am actually quite hungry. I haven't eaten anything since lunch."

"Well. I guess that settles it then."

"Settles what?"

"Where we're going to go," Haley said and started walking ahead of him.

Still standing on one place Nathan frowned. "But where are we going?"

Haley laughed and turned around although she continued walking backwards. "I thought you were the one who said the point is we don't know?" Nathan smiled in reply, but when he still didn't move Haley asked, "Are you coming or not, slowpoke?"

"Slowpoke?" Nathan echoed, his eyebrows raised. He strode ahead and caught up with Haley in no time. "Who're you calling slowpoke? I'm half inclined to say I'll race you there."

"Where?" Haley asked as she turned around so that they were both facing forwards. "You don't know where we're going."

"I'd just follow you."

"But then you'd have to be behind me the whole time so you admit that you're slower!" Haley concluded triumphantly.

Nathan shook his head as he laughed. "Well, then I guess you'll have to tell me where you're taking us."

"Nope, it's a surprise," Haley replied and nudged him playfully. "But I think you're going to like it," she added without a hint of sarcasm in her tone.

* * *

"This is a joke right?"

"No," Haley said honestly. "You said you were hungry so I have brought you to the land of food."

Nathan looked at the building a few feet in front of them before glancing back at Haley who was still standing on his left. "The 24-hour supermarket?"

Haley shrugged. "It's not like we can just walk into a restaurant without a reservation on a weekend. And how many of the smaller eating places are still open at this time?"

"Well, I guess not many, but surely-"

"You're hungry, so let's eat!"

"Yeah, but what can you get at the supermarket?" Nathan whined. When Haley merely stared at him, Nathan corrected, "I mean, I know what you can get at the supermarket, but…"

"But what?"

Nathan frowned, not sure how to word what he was trying to say. All the times he had pictured him and Haley going on a date – and he had more than just a few times – going to the supermarket had not been on his list of ideas. "Somehow out this wasn't what I imagined we'd be doing tonight," he said finally.

"You'd rather be back at prom, huh?"

Glancing down at Haley once more, he smiled. "Not really."

Her face colored at that, but it only took Haley a few seconds to recover and ask him, "What did you have in mind then?" After a moment's thought Nathan opened his mouth to reply, before she beat him to it saying, "Let my guess. You hadn't decided?"

Nathan chuckled. "Okay, so we'll go to the supermarket, but I choose where we eat?" he offered.

Haley nodded. "That's fair. Come on, slowpoke, I'll race you to the trolleys!" she said, before running off ahead of him.

Laughing Nathan ran after her, although not to his full speed, preferring instead to admire the way her brown hair billowed in waves around her face and how the ends of her knee-length dress flew up slightly, revealing a little more of her toned legs. For a girl who claimed to have no athletic experience whatsoever her body certainly didn't reflect it. She tried to hide it underneath baggy jeans and that hideous poncho she wore sometimes, but if you really looked – and Nathan definitely did – you could spot the shapely figure that lay underneath.

"I won!" Haley exclaimed once she reached the trolleys that were parked outside the entrance. Panting slightly, she leaned on one for support before turning around to see where Nathan was. "What are you doing all the way over there still? Too busy daydreaming?" she teased.

Nathan jogged the remainder of the distance, wondering what she'd do if he told her he had been daydreaming, about her legs, in fact. He smirked as he decided she'd probably blush. Or possibly slap him. You could never tell with Haley.

"So do you admit defeat?" Haley asked when he had finally reached her.

"I suppose I must."

"Well, sir, you were a worthy opponent," Haley informed him with an over the top bow that Nathan would have laughed at if he hadn't been preoccupied noticing how the top of her square necked dress dipped slightly and he caught the tiniest glimpse of her cleavage. But then she stood up straight and the lace trimmed neckline returned to its place a few inches below her collarbone. Oblivious to Nathan's inattention she continued, excited, "And, now, let's shop!"

Haley walked in through the automatic doors and picked up a basket before placing her purse in it, leaving Nathan to follow her. As they walked down the first aisle, Nathan mentioned, "You know, I didn't figure you as one of those girls who liked to shop."

Frowning, Haley immediately looked up at his face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, just…" Nathan faltered, surprised that she looked so annoyed by the offhand comment.

"Well?"

"Well, you know, girls like Brooke they like to shop a lot and I just didn't think you did," he muttered.

"That's kind of stereotyping, isn't it?"

"Um-"

Before Nathan had a chance to reply Haley spoke up, "But, no, I know what you mean. I don't really like to shop much – at least, not Brooke style shopping anyway. Once Peyton dragged me along with them and it was – well, horrific, almost. But, some shopping is okay."

"Like shopping at the supermarket?"

Haley laughed. "It's nothing exciting, but its okay. I'm kind of used to it since I have to do grocery shopping when my parents aren't around."

Nathan nodded as Haley surveyed the shelves to the left of them which had a selection of drinks. He felt like he should say something in case she was still annoyed, but wasn't sure what, before he finally settled on, "Er, I didn't mean to…offend you or anything."

"No, it's fine."

"I just said it because of what you said when we were coming insi-"

"I didn't mean-"

"It was the way you said it, I-"

"It doesn't matter," Haley said firmly. She had just been making a casual comment as, she realized, had Nathan and she felt like slapping herself for going off on him about it. Shopping of whatever kind was pretty much all the same for her. She had just been a little more enthusiastic about it this time due to her present company. But if she had to embarrass herself in front of him – and it was becoming clear that she wasn't much good at anything else – she preferred to embarrass herself by being ridiculous rather than saying things like that.

She wished she could have said it to him, but it was too late now and even if it had come to mind earlier little Haley Tutorgirl James was just too shy to say something that forward to a boy, let alone to Nathan Basketball Star Scott. And even with all her academic prowess she couldn't figure out what Nathan was doing in a 24-hour supermarket with his tutor when he could be at prom with the kind of girl who wasn't too shy to say things like that.

"So, uh, you sure you want to do this supermarket thing?" Haley asked nervously.

"What? Yeah, of course! I'm still hungry," Nathan added with a smirk causing Haley to smile.

"Okay so how should we do this?"

"You're asking me? I haven't been to the supermarket in…I can't remember actually."

"Aw. Poor little rich boy," Haley teased, "Doesn't know his way around a supermarket."

"No, I really have no idea," Nathan said with mock-seriousness. "I'm going to have to stick _real_ close to you so I don't get lost," he continued and to his delight Haley blushed.

Too flustered to tease him back she got down to the shopping. "Okay, so what drink do you want?"

Nathan chose a bottle of soda and Haley, after deciding on a different flavor, placed a small bottle of each into the basket.

"I'll carry that for you," Nathan said as they continued down the aisle, deftly taking the basket from her hands.

"Thank you, but I could have managed," Haley informed him.

"I'm sure you could have. I just wanted to do something nice."

"Oh. Okay. Just as long as it wasn't a gender biased action," she stated.

"Oh, no. I certainly wouldn't want to bias your gender," Nathan replied, causing Haley to erupt into a fit of giggles.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** Firstly, I'm so sorry about this chapter being up late! First it got delayed by a computer problem and once I had that fixed I got stuck with the middle and then when I posted it on other sites I couldn't upload it to But, it's here now and I hope you all enjoy it! Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and many thanks to Christina who beta'd this chapter for me (and also Miranda who beta'd the other two chapters). This is the final one! - it's been fun and I hope you like this last chapter. :) The quotation used in this chapter is from the Vanessa Carlton song that gave this story its name.

**Part Three**

In twenty minutes Nathan and Haley had finished choosing all the things they wanted, and somewhere along the way the awkwardness that had plagued them earlier seemed to have disappeared. They hadn't talked about anything significant, but from the way she was talking and joking with him, Nathan could tell Haley was becoming more comfortable with him. He liked that.

Once they had paid for their items, split half-ways on Haley's insistence, they walked out of the supermarket, each carrying a bag.

"So, have you decided where we're going yet?" Haley wondered.

"Actually, I had two ideas," Nathan admitted as he led Haley in a direction, which took them further away from the junior prom.

"Does that mean I get to have final pick?"

"If you like," Nathan told her, smiling at the way she walked like she had a spring in her step.

"Ooh; so what are your ideas?"

"Well…" Nathan paused as he headed further down the road until he reached the turn off to go right. Once Haley had caught up with him, he pointed at the far away buildings that were now in sight. "You see those houses there?"

"Yep."

"One of them is my Dad's beach house."

"Really? Oh, of course," Haley realised, having been there once before. "I forgot because when I went there with Lucas to that party we drove from the other way."

"Yeah, that's the way closer to school."

"You're not having a big after-prom party there?" Haley inquired.

"Nah; Brooke would be pretty pissed if I held a party at the same time she had one planned."

Haley laughed. "Yeah, she's been going on about her party for ages. I have no idea how she managed to plan that and prom."

"I don't think the after-party would have required much planning. Get a kegger, tell a few people and that's pretty much it."

"I'm sure you speak from personal knowledge," Haley commented.

"Just a little. So, we could go there," Nathan suggested, getting back on topic.

"Or?"

"Or we could just eat on the beach," he stated, gesturing to it.

Haley pondered for a moment, looking over at the beach house, before returning her gaze to the sandy shore and ocean waves that lay below them. "Is it alright if we eat on the beach?" she said finally.

"Of course," he agreed. "Come on, the path's this way."

Nathan walked down the steps to the beach first, Haley following him slowly as she did her best to balance as she descended the steep steps in heels. She jumped off the last one by putting her hand on Nathan's shoulder for support, but when her heels dug into the sand and she started to fall backwards, he had to put his hand on her waist to keep her upright.

"Maybe I should lose the shoes," she said.

"It might be a good idea," Nathan affirmed.

Haley passed him her shopping bag to carry before she bent down to remove the heels. However, doing so on unsteady ground didn't help her balance any and without looking she put one hand out, trying to grab onto Nathan's shoulder once more. She caught something but soon realised it was his left hand that he had offered her, having transferred both bags to his right. Haley then proceeded to do her best to remove her shoes and ignore the voice in her head that kept exclaiming, "Nathan's holding my hand!"

When she had taken them both off, Haley stood upright holding both the shoes in her left hand unsure whether she should remove her right from Nathan's grip or not. "Thanks, I can take the bag now," she told him.

"No, it's okay; they're not heavy and you're carrying your shoes anyway," he said, and proceeded to lead her further down the beach without letting go of her hand.

Haley's eyes were fixed on the sight of her small hand encased in his larger one rather than where they were going so she was surprised to find that it seemed to be getting brighter. Looking up, she found the source. "Oh! I didn't notice that bonfire over there."

"I thought if we sat closer to it we might be able to actually see what we're eating. But if you want to sit somewhere else-"

"No, here is fine," she informed him as they came to a stop.

"Aright then," Nathan replied, bending to set the bags down and in doing so had to reluctantly let go of her hand.

Haley moved to sit down cross-legged, but then realising she was wearing a dress, stretched her legs out in front of her instead. As she stretched her dress to its full length just over bottom of her knees, Haley felt a sprouting hair on the back of her leg, and soon grew concerned that there might be more on the front of her legs that she hadn't noticed. She squinted, trying to see if it was noticeable in the soft light, but the action drew Nathan's attention.

"Are you okay?"

"What? Yeah, I'm fine," Haley said jerkily.

"Okay. Here's your soda," he told her as he passed her the drink.

"Thanks." A moment later, she observed, "You know I've never had a picnic at night before."

"I've never had a picnic at all."

"Really? Why not?"

Nathan shrugged as he continued to take the food out of the bags. "It just wasn't my dad's idea of fun."

"Well, I think picnic's are loads of fun!" Haley enthused. "When I was younger we used to have them all the time."

"But not anymore?" Nathan observed.

"My sisters and brothers are all over the country, and a lot of them have families of their own," Haley explained. "Last year we had just one, and Vivian couldn't make it then because my nephew Mickey was having his tonsils removed. But, you don't want to know about all that," she added.

"No, that's alright. I like hearing about…your family," Nathan mumbled, unsure of how to phrase himself.

"It's not really very interesting."

"It is to me. You're a pretty interesting person, Haley James."

Nathan expected her to blush, but instead she simply rolled her eyes and took another swig of her soda. "Very funny, Nathan Scott. Now hand over those crisps."

He had been about to pass them anyway, but his hand stalled at her comment. "Why don't you think I'm serious?"

"Because! You're Nathan Scott."

Nathan raised his eyebrows. "What does that mean? You think I lie all the time?"

"No, no, of course not," Haley said quickly. "But, I bet you use lines like that on all the girls."

"When was the last time you saw me with a girl other than you?"

"Well, I-" Haley stopped abruptly, when it hit her that she couldn't answer. Not because she couldn't remember, but because she actually hadn't seen him with anyone. "Um…well, it's not like I see you every hour of every day!" she sputtered.

Nathan kept looking at her, so intently that Haley almost dropped his gaze, but he seemed as if he had something to say and the curious part of her made her stare back. When he said, "Here are your crisps," and passed the packet over to her she felt a sting of disappointment, even though she wasn't really sure what she was expecting.

"Thanks," she muttered, before ripping open the packet and starting to munch on the crisps.

Haley kept her eyes on her crisp packet as she continued to eat them; slowly realising she couldn't hear Nathan doing the same.

Before she could remind him that he'd been the one to say he was hungry in the first place, she heard him begin, "Do you think…Do you want to…Maybe we could do something like this again?"

"Yeah," Haley said, looking back over at him and smiling. "It would be nice to hang out again," she added, but then noticed him visibly frown at that. "What?"

"I meant…not that we would hang out, but for us to _go_ out."

"But we are out," Haley mentioned, even more confused.

Nathan shook his head. "Not go outside –"

"But what other go out – oh!" Haley exclaimed, it suddenly dawning. "You mean not go _out_, but _go_ out! Like on a date?"

"Yeah," Nathan stated.

Haley, however, was still reeling from his earlier statement. "You want to go out on a date with me?" she wondered aloud, only she said it so fast all the words meshed together.

"Yeah, I do," he said hesitantly, a little worried that his spur of the moment decision to just come out with it, _finally_, had been a bad one.

"I-you-but-" she stuttered, but then all of a sudden shook her head and said simply, "Yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes," she repeated, before meeting his gaze again, a small smile gracing her features. "I would love to."

"Oh," Nathan almost whispered, a wide grin forming on his face.

Haley grinned at the pleased look on his face, but she suddenly felt even more nervous than she had before. It was her turn to say something, but she didn't know what! Her brain was too busy jumping up and down to function properly.

She decided to wait and let Nathan say something, but instead of speaking he simply reached out and tucked that bit of her hair that was always getting in the way of her eyes behind her ear. Haley's face warmed at the feeling of his fingertips on his skin, and she looked down trying to hide her blush, but even then she could still tell Nathan was all of a sudden moving a lot closer to her. Like, invading her personal space close.

"What are you doing?" she blurted out, which had the effect of stopping him.

"I, uh, was going to kiss you."

"But we haven't even been on a date yet?"

"Um…so we can't kiss until we've been on a proper date?" Nathan wondered, his forehead wrinkling as he frowned.

"I don't know!" Haley whined, internally cursing her lack of knowledge on important things. "I thought that was the rule!"

At that comment, Nathan chuckled, and his hand that was in her hair came round to cup the side of her face, making her meet his gaze. As he slowly brought his head down towards hers, he didn't close his eyes so Haley kept hers open as well, until, all of a sudden, his face was mere centimetres from hers and she screwed her eyes shut and closed her mouth tightly, rolling up her lips so that, if he had tried, all Nathan would have got was skin.

She thought she heard him laugh, but given the situation, Haley decided he was allowed that.

"Haley?" he prompted, humour in his tone.

Opening her mouth, but keeping her eyes closed, she replied, "Yes?"

"What's wrong?"

"I was eating salt and vinegar crisps!" she whined. "My breath must be terrible!"

Nathan chuckled loudly at that. Haley opened her eyes and pouted at him. "It's not funny, Nathan."

"I'm sorry," he apologised and kissed the top of her head lightly.

The gesture was so sweet she decided she couldn't be angry with him. Instead, she nuzzled her cheek into the side of his jacket and took a deep breath of his nice, warm Nathan smell.

"Hey?"

Turning her head up to reply, Haley said, "Yeah?"

Without giving her time to react Nathan swooped in and kissed her on the lips. Taken off guard by the action, she instinctively moved to break away, so Nathan brought his hand up to her hair, keeping her in place as his lips pressed more insistently against hers until she finally relaxed in his arms and timidly kissed him back. It only lasted a few seconds more, but when Nathan finally moved back, Haley could still feel the kiss lingering against her lips.

Breathing slowly, she began, "That was…" before opening her eyes and accusing him, "That was sneaky!"

Nathan smirked at her. "But you liked it though." The way he said it as a statement rather than a question should have aggravated her, but it wasn't as if she could disagree.

"That's not the point!"

"It is a little, Hales," Nathan pointed out, still smirking.

Haley opened her mouth to disagree, but then closed it. "Fine. But no more until I brush my teeth!"

Nathan almost burst out laughing at that, but the warning look on Haley's face sobered him. "Whatever you say, baby."

Her expression didn't change as she looked at him, but when she moved to nuzzle against his shoulder again, Nathan was sure he saw her smile.

He was adjusting the way he was sitting so he could hold her better, when he heard a crackling noise.

"What was that?"

This time it was Haley's turn to laugh. "You're sitting on my crisps!"

* * *

"Have you guys seen Haley yet?" Standing just inside the car park, Lucas did a full circle trying to see is he could spot her anywhere.

"She told you she was coming, didn't she? She'll be here! Stop worrying and start trying to think of ways you can convince your mum to let you come to the party!" Brooke told him.

"I already told you, Brooke. After the tattoo she said no parties indefinitely. She wasn't going to let me come to prom until you somehow managed to convince her."

"But I thought when she said you could come, it meant both prom and the party, not just prom," Brooke whined.

"Brooke, I was there at the café when you hounded Karen until she agreed! She expressly said it was only the prom," Peyton reminded her, from where she was standing to the left of them, rolling her eyes at the scene.

Jake, who had been standing next to Peyton but ignoring Brooke's outbursts, piped up when he noticed someone walking towards them from the car park entrance, "Hey, is that Haley?"

"Yes! Finally," Lucas muttered.

"Hey guys!" she grinned, waving at them all as she approached. "Sorry if I kept you waiting."

"We haven't been here long," Brooke informed her, "Lucas was just moaning."

Peyton and Jake shared a look as if to say Brooke had been doing most of them moaning, but when Peyton opened her mouth to chip in she suddenly noticed Haley's clothes looked different. As Haley drew nearer Peyton realised, she was still wearing the same dress, it was just that she was wearing a jacket over it. Only it was way too big for her. Like a guy's jacket…

Peyton's eyes widened as she remembered the only explanation Haley had given over the phone for disappearing halfway through prom was that she had wanted to go for a walk. She had assumed Haley had meant on her own and that was why she hadn't asked any of them to come with her, but now Peyton didn't think that at all, and, looking over at Lucas, she could tell Lucas didn't either.

"So how was prom?" Haley asked as if nothing was wrong.

"Pretty good. Lucas and I were prom king and queen," Brooke said proudly.

"Really? Congratulations."

"Thanks, Tutor girl. Now, do you think you could convince Lucas to come to this party of mine?"

"Not if he doesn't want to get in even more trouble with Karen!"

Rolling her eyes, Brooke set off to where Lucas had parked his car and began to ramble on about prom, informing Haley about all she had missed. Normally, Haley would have ignored her, but anxious to get away from Lucas and Peyton's curious gazes about her attire, she kept up with Brooke as they walked in front of the others and pretended to be enthralled by her detailed description of prom.

Haley knew she probably should have taken the jacket off and given it back to Nathan, but he had told her to keep it and, well, she had wanted to. The rest of their evening had been absolutely perfect; she had thought no picnic could top the James Family picnic of '99 but she had never been so happy to have been proven wrong.

And, okay, Lucas was not going to be happy when she told him about it. But, as Nathan had pointed out to her when she had mentioned it, she was happy, and that was good enough. More than good enough.

They stopped once they reached Brooke's car, as they were going to take Lucas and Haley back to Karen's Café, before she, Peyton and Jake went to her house for the party. Haley stood back letting the others get in the car first, still ignoring her friends' looks.

Instead, she looked out to the car park entrance. There was a boy waiting by the entrance, his white shirt standing out against the dark night sky. Haley hugged her jacket tighter around her and grinned at him. He was too far away for her to be certain, but Haley was pretty sure he winked at her.

"_Stand up, boy._

_I shine so bright when you're around."_


End file.
